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updated 3rd March 2008  

N.B. Above Chart is abstracted from NextView Program

Last week we said that, "While last week did provide good daily trading range in stock markets, there was no clear direction as to where the market is heading to. Last Friday trading was full of surprised. Just when Asia markets like Hongkong, Singapore ... etc about to break down their critical supports levels, Nikkei came in to rescue in the afternoon and caused some rebounds in Hongkong and Singapore to stay above their respective important support. Similarly in USA, Dow Jones Industrial did sell down to a low of -120 pts, but again managed to rally back to +96 pts towards closing on the news that a plan by several banks to bail out struggling bond insurer Ambac Financial could be unveiled early next week. So, is this a conspiracy or pure coincident? I don't know. All I know is the battle between the Bulls and the Bears shall continue this week and may be extended to next week too. However, we are very near to a deciding point for both Bulls and Bears can no longer hold this equilibrium point forever." True enough after a false broke up last Wednesday, the market was quick to reverse and sold down fiercely on Friday. We also said that, "As for STI, we could expect a stronger opening on Monday with support at 3019 and resistance at 3130. The index will continue its range movement until USA market provides a clearer direction." Again we were right to the dot! STI was directionless in the early to middle of last week, but eventually broke down on Friday. So, what could have next week? Will the market melt down again since it had broken the support last Friday?

With Dow Jones Industries dropping more than 300 pts last Friday, we could expect a big sell down in Asia on Monday opening. The question now is how much further the sell down will be, before a rebound emerge. Giving that last Friday was the first time the market breaks the trading range, we could expect the selling to continue for at least a few more days. We expect market will only begin to rebound near 15th March (the next Fed meeting), so for short term the market remains bearish. Especially there are some important economic data to be release this week, which are likely to be bad and could bring the index down further. However, we had not witnessed any four consecutive months of selling down since the beginning of the Bulls run in Oct'02. This is the first time we have seen such thing happened. Hence a potential rebound is really there, giving that the Fed meeting is only two weeks from now. Expect market to continue selling down in the beginning of the week and may start to rebound by end of the week. We need to see the momentum of the current selling down, before understand their wave structure. The reason that I am particularly interested in this juncture, is because the winner will basically decide whether we are heading for a mild recession or a deep depression! In technical term, it will provide a clearer picture as to whether we are heading for a WAVE 4 of bigger degree before another bull run OR we are heading for an A-B-C bigger degree melt down. I am confident market will tell us a clearer direction in the next two weeks, and by then we have plenty of time to decide our future investment strategy. Right now the wiser choice is to stay sideline and wait for market to tell us the direction! There are a series of economic data such as Monday's Feb data on manufacturing, Tuesday's on service sector data and Wednesday's on productivity & cost plus the all important non-farm payroll to be released on Friday, there may move the market. As for STI, we could expect a gap down on Monday opening. However, so long as the support at 2859 did not break, there still have chance for the Bull to fight back. So do stay tune and wait for the result on this battle between the Bull and the Bear. As such, if you are intermediate term investor you should stay sideline waiting for market to tell you the direction.  As for traders, you may have to stay short until some technical divergence emerge. For STI, the first support is at 3013 follow by the next support at 2859.
The following are the support and resistance to watch for Dow Jones, Hang Seng and Nikkei next week.

                       Dow Jones      Hang Seng     Nikkei
Resistance       12767            24840            14100
Support             12069            23077            12900

As for STI the resistances and supports are as follow:
Resistance:      3050, 3100, 3130, 3168, 3200, 3250
Support:            3020, 2950, 2930, 2850, 2746

Events To watch For The Coming Week:

  1. The movement in Dow Jones Industry and NASDAQ..
  2. The movement in currencies, oil and commodities price.
  3. The economics data, such as Monday's Feb data on Manufacturing, Tuesday's on Service sector data, Wednesday on Productivity and cost.
  4. The all important Non-farm payroll to be announced on Friday.

The following are two possible wave counts on STI as at to-date:

  1. Preferred Count (60% probability)-- bullish count
    My preferred count calling for a top at 2502 (on 7/1/2000) as wave ((1)), it then follow by a two year sell off on wave ((2)) to 1197 (on 28/9/2001). The index had then entered into an  impulsive wave ((3)) that ended at 3906. We are now in the development of wave ((4)), of which we expect it to be a big triangle formation that take about one to two years to complete. The recent sell down is the first leg of wave ((4)), which will take a form of a-b-c and reaches the potential target of 2770, as the wave (a) of ((4)). The index will then continue to develop the (a)-(b)-(c)-(d)-(e) triangle formation.
     
  2. Alternate Count (40% probability)-- bearish count
    My alternate count calling for a top at 2502 (on 7/1/2000) as wave ((1)), it then follow by a two year sell off on wave ((2)) to 1197 (on 28/9/2001). The index had then entered into an  impulsive wave ((3)) that ended at 2666 in May 2006. The index had then entered into wave ((5)) that ended on 3906 in October'07. We are now in the downtrend bear market, which will last for a few years! Although this count remains as the least chance as compare to my preferred count. If the index breaks below 2776 convincingly on very high volume, the odd on bear market will significantly increase.

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